1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly for use in forming a branch circuit for a wiring harness, and more particularly to an electrical terminal adapted to be connected in a row in a chained fashion, a connector housing for accommodating electrical terminals connected to each other in a row in a chained fashion, and an electrical connector assembly for use in forming a branch circuit which comprises the electrical terminals and the connector housing that are combined together.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
A prior art electrical terminal is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 24622/1988. This known electrical terminal has a two-stage box-shaped contact portion constituted by lower narrow and upper wide portions. The rear end of a top wall of the upper wide portion forms a tab-like connecting piece, while a slot for receiving the top wall of a wide portion is formed in the lower narrow portion in such a manner as to extend from the front to the rear thereof. A tongue piece extends from a bottom plate of the narrow portion rearwardly in a curved fashion. When the top wall of the wide portion of one electrical terminals is fitted into the slot in the narrow portion of another electrical terminal so that the tab-like connecting piece of the former is brought into contact with the tongue piece of the latter, the upper and lower portions are connected to each other in a row in a chained fashion for accommodation in a connector housing.
Since the above prior art electrical terminal is constructed such that the upper and lower portions of the two-stage box-shaped contact portion are to be connected to each other in a row in a chained fashion, the contact portion of the electrical terminal itself is inevitably large, and a pitch between electrical terminals connected to each other in a row in a chained fashion is also large. Thus, the prior art electrical terminal has drawbacks in that it does not meet current technical requirements of compactness and miniaturization for a wiring harness and in that the electrical terminal cannot be fabricated efficiently due to its complicate configuration.